Thanks for amazing library fair | Letter

Published 2:16 pm Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Thanks to everyone for another fantastic Library Fair!

I greatly appreciate and admire the people who make this such a success from year to year, including James Lobdell, who coordinates the Fair overall; Lynn Carter, who runs the book sale and does all the accounting; Pierrette Guimond, who pitches in everywhere as the Friends President; Tim Lunde, who coordinates the booth rentals; Sue Lamb, who runs the Silent Art Auction; Leslie Seaman, who does such a great job with the music every year; other members of the Friends Board (Alayne Goodhart, Kathy Morris, Carol Ordway, Jean Soderquist, Valerie West, Jim Wiemeyer, and Sandy Wilson); and the many other volunteers, who spend so much time to set up, operate, and take down the fair. We’ve also been fortunate to work consistently with the Orcas Rowing Team, which helps us move all those hundreds of boxes of books. I estimate that over 10,000 books went home with local and visiting readers on this single day.

I think that the arrangement with the Farmers’ Market worked out well for everyone. I hope that they too feel good about the Fair. I also hope that the local businesses fared well, despite the inevitable challenges in routing traffic. What a terrific social and revenue-producing community event! I would hate to think of life on Orcas without the Friends and the annual Library Fair.

Phil Heikkinen

Director, Orcas Island Library